what do you make of him now?..I loved his performance back in 2007, at least from Canada onwards and in 2008 and 2009 I gave him the benefit of the doubt thinking he wasn’t adapting to the unfamiliar tense atmosphere at McLaren (similar to Frentzen at Williams, who after that was brilliant in the Jordan), eventually because the team was leaning their efforts more towards Hamilton..and now, he is seemingly back on the right track and I’d really love it if he could make Lotus a solid name in GP racing once again

I like Heikki a lot. I think he’s a humble guy (in today’s press conference he spoke about his first victory and said ” He [Massa] and Lewis (Hamilton) were both doing a great race and I really deserved to be third that day but they both had problems”) but a hard worker. I think for various reasons it didn’t work out. Maybe he could go to Renault or build Lotus up, either way hopefully he’ll have a promising future.

He’s got a brilliant attitude and he’s a thoroughly likeable guy, but I think even this year his performance isn’t as good as it should be. Trulli’s had a lot of problems this year but Heikki hasn’t been ahead of him that often when he really should be.

Actually, perhaps he shouldn’t be ahead of Jarno – Other than a couple of races in his first season and the odd decent saturday performance for McLaren, Heikki hasn’t shown anything worthy, in my opinion, of a top drive. Jarno at his peak on the other hand put in a number of decent showings and can still pull the odd bit of magic out when everything comes together for him.

I would say Heikki could be the next Nick Heidfeld type driver – but I don’t even think he’s that good.

Re:So let me get this straight…. Mercedes got rid of Kovalainen to ensure that Button would take the “Number 1” away from the Mercedes works team

>>Pretty much. Mercedes wanted the no.1 on their car (before they bought brawn gp) so they had a discussion with RD. Which led to Button funding for the no.1 status.

RD is busy tryin 2 create the British Ferrari, making their own engine and race team (for the chasis). But before McLaren-Mercedes deal ends Mercedes wanted the glory, so it helped fund a move for Button.

Mercedes then needed an F1 vehicle for its brand, so it bought the best-at-the-time, Brawn GP off the shelf without the hassle of having to develop a works team.

It was decided NOT to renew Kovalainen for marketing reasons.

Hamilton is RD`s baby so his seat is safe.

The marketing powers occupied the 2nd seat with Button.

Kovalainen not want to become the new P.DelaRosa and be the 3rd driver – he wanted a race seat, so joined Lotus